The Cure, стр. 9
‘Wait, are we talking about Will Charlton of the Cleveland Browns?’ said Danny.
‘The very same,’ replied his dad.
‘So how did you do it Dad? How did you convince her to date you?’
‘I like to think it came after the school won a debating competition. We were discussing the rights of immigrants crossing the border and the humane response to how we should accept anyone in and help them, rather than send them back. Man, I was good that day. Your mother was sat there in the front row looking up at me. I was last to go, and we were losing, badly. Seeing her face just stirred something in me. A passion. Not just for her but for what I was debating. She brought the good out in me and gave me the confidence to know what I was saying was right. Well, I bossed it right there and then. Had everyone on their feet clapping and whooping. But only one person’s opinion mattered to me in that moment and she was sat down smiling that smile at me, not clapping but just smiling. It was then that I knew she was mine forever.’
‘However,’ he added. ‘Until the day she passed, she always maintains that it wasn’t that speech that got her. It was that I was the first senior to get a Dodge Challenger.’
Danny laughed and they both sat back on the sofa looking through the photos. The President felt something inside him that he hadn’t felt for a long time. Happiness.
Chapter Five
Logan sat alone on his bed with his head in his hands, a million things running through his mind following the decision made by his father in the war room.
None of this seemed right to him. Playing God with other people’s lives just left a sickness in the pit of his stomach. The easy option was to walk away and just go along with his father’s plan, but that just wasn’t him. He only believed in good and bad and his loyalties fell on only one side of that fence.
Although the board considered him an adult he still had his own room off the main kids’ dormitories. All the children had grown up living in close quarters and although they would eat and spend most evening with their parents, they all slept together in the four large rooms full of bunk beds, originally built for large scale army forces. Logan, now part of the military outfit, had made the decision to remain as head of the dormitory and oversaw a group of twenty teenage boys along with his daytime security detail for The President.
They were all good lads who got on well, other than the occasional dispute, but they looked up to Logan and respected him. They were a tight unit and were supportive of each other and the other younger groups.
Logan’s brother Daniel, or Danny as he was known to the other boys and girls, was part of Logan’s room, but would sleep anywhere else on the base that wouldn’t involve taking orders or spending time with his brother. He still loved Logan, but he didn’t always see eye to eye with his conformist ideas, choosing to hang with the other boys who would steal cigarettes and alcohol from storage containers on the base.
Logan sat silently, for once in his life not knowing what he should do when Danny walked into the room and placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown brother,’ he said.
‘You’ve no idea Danny,’ he replied.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’
Logan sighed and looked up towards his brother, fear in his eyes, ’Danny, I know we’ve had our differences, but you know I love you right? You know I’m always here for you?’
‘What’s going on Logan? I love you too man, but I know when something serious is about to go down. When all is said and done, you’re my family and whatever has happened in the past blood is thicker than water.’
‘What if I told you that something is going to happen within the next fortnight that could potentially kill millions of people. Something that is taking away the choice of every human being above ground, to benefit us. Something that we are manufacturing to take away lives to save others.’
‘I’d tell you we need to stop it. What is happening is happening because of something we did as a planet of fools. We blindly accepted that The Cure was something good, when every person on this planet is guilty of something. I know its bad up there. How bad I don’t know, but it’s the worst kind of bad. But if it wasn’t meant to be, well it wouldn’t have happened. We think we have it good down here but you’re kidding yourself. Look around. It’s a prison. The Cure was meant to wipe us out Logan and deep down you know it. We have no right to make decisions for other people without their knowledge. That’s crazy. Why did you even tell me this?’
‘For once in my life I disagree with a decision that dad is making, and I cannot carry that burden alone. I need you and I need you to help me do what’s right Danny.’
Tallulah had been on her way to see Logan and was about five yards from his bedroom when she started to overhear the discussion between the brothers. At first, she thought it was a usual spat but soon realized that